We live in an old farmhouse with a boiler and radiator heating system. Air conditioning is done by window units except for the living room, which has a very old through-the-wall unit. As you can see in the picture linked below, the placement is very bad but that's where they put it 30+ years ago.

http://s1346.photobucket.com/user/pa...45d47.jpg.html


The unit is under the porch roof on the right side in the picture, right behind the hanging plant. When it's on, the hot air exhaust blows right across the door so you get hit with a blast of hot air when you come in or out. Also, since it's under the roof, circulation is poor so I imagine that a lot of that hot air gets sucked back into the cooling air ports, reducing efficiency.

I want to replace the unit this summer and there's really no other spot to put it in the living room. Besides, I'd hate to have to cut another hole in the wall.

I had an idea to get a new unit (the room size requires about 11K BTU) and mount it in the same place. I'd build a sheet metal plenum to catch the hot air exhaust and run an exhaust duct up through the porch roof. This would eliminate the blast furnace effect when opening the door and hopefully make the unit more efficient since it wouldn't be recirculating the hot air. Sounds weird, I know. Any comments from the HVAC experts on the group?

The other idea was a split unit but they cost twice what a through-the-wall unit costs and need professional installation.

I could also get two window units as a last resort.

Paul

On Jun 17, 7:30*pm, Pavel314 wrote:
We live in an old farmhouse with a boiler and radiator heating system. Air conditioning is done by window units except for the living room, which has a very old through-the-wall unit. As you can see in the picture linked below, the placement is very bad but that's where they put it 30+ years ago.

http://s1346.photobucket.com/user/pa...01_zps60e45d47...

The unit is under the porch roof on the right side in the picture, right behind the hanging plant. When it's on, the hot air exhaust blows right across the door so you get hit with a blast of hot air when you come in or out.. Also, since it's under the roof, circulation is poor so I imagine that a lot of that hot air gets sucked back into the cooling air ports, reducing efficiency.

I want to replace the unit this summer and there's really no other spot to put it in the living room. Besides, I'd hate to have to cut another hole in the wall.

I had an idea to get a new unit (the room size requires about 11K BTU) and mount it in the same place. I'd build a sheet metal plenum to catch the hot air exhaust and run an exhaust duct up through the porch roof. This would eliminate the blast furnace effect when opening the door and hopefully make the unit more efficient since it wouldn't be recirculating the hot air. Sounds weird, I know. Any comments from the HVAC experts on the group?

The other idea was a split unit but they cost twice what a through-the-wall unit costs and need professional installation.

I could also get two window units as a last resort.

Paul

Could you put a thru the wall unit under a living-room window???

In article ,
Pavel314 wrote:

We live in an old farmhouse with a boiler and radiator heating system. Air
conditioning is done by window units except for the living room, which has a
very old through-the-wall unit. As you can see in the picture linked below,
the placement is very bad but that's where they put it 30+ years ago.

http://s1346.photobucket.com/user/pa...45d47.jpg.html


The unit is under the porch roof on the right side in the picture, right
behind the hanging plant. When it's on, the hot air exhaust blows right
across the door so you get hit with a blast of hot air when you come in or
out. Also, since it's under the roof, circulation is poor so I imagine that a
lot of that hot air gets sucked back into the cooling air ports, reducing
efficiency.

I want to replace the unit this summer and there's really no other spot to
put it in the living room. Besides, I'd hate to have to cut another hole in
the wall.

I had an idea to get a new unit (the room size requires about 11K BTU) and
mount it in the same place. I'd build a sheet metal plenum to catch the hot
air exhaust and run an exhaust duct up through the porch roof. This would
eliminate the blast furnace effect when opening the door and hopefully make
the unit more efficient since it wouldn't be recirculating the hot air.
Sounds weird, I know. Any comments from the HVAC experts on the group?

The other idea was a split unit but they cost twice what a through-the-wall
unit costs and need professional installation.

I could also get two window units as a last resort.

Paul

put it above the porch? I know it would be high, but a step stool would
solve that...and you might get better interior cooling circulation

On Mon, 17 Jun 2013 19:30:26 -0700 (PDT), "
wrote:




Paul

Could you put a thru the wall unit under a living-room window???

In my last house, I put the AC under the dining room window and it did
the living room just fine. Of course, it was very open.

I don't see many options. Yes, the split is more money, but it does
have benefits and you will be living with whatever you do for many
years.

To make a better recommendation, we'd have to see the room layout and
your wallet thickness.

Pavel314 wrote:
We live in an old farmhouse with a boiler and radiator heating system.
Air conditioning is done by window units except for the living room,
which has a very old through-the-wall unit. As you can see in the picture
linked below, the placement is very bad but that's where they put it 30+ years ago.

http://s1346.photobucket.com/user/pa...45d47.jpg.html


The unit is under the porch roof on the right side in the picture, right
behind the hanging plant. When it's on, the hot air exhaust blows right
across the door so you get hit with a blast of hot air when you come in
or out. Also, since it's under the roof, circulation is poor so I imagine
that a lot of that hot air gets sucked back into the cooling air ports,
reducing efficiency.

I want to replace the unit this summer and there's really no other spot
to put it in the living room. Besides, I'd hate to have to cut another hole in the wall.

I had an idea to get a new unit (the room size requires about 11K BTU)
and mount it in the same place. I'd build a sheet metal plenum to catch
the hot air exhaust and run an exhaust duct up through the porch roof.
This would eliminate the blast furnace effect when opening the door and
hopefully make the unit more efficient since it wouldn't be recirculating
the hot air. Sounds weird, I know. Any comments from the HVAC experts on the group?

The other idea was a split unit but they cost twice what a
through-the-wall unit costs and need professional installation.

I could also get two window units as a last resort.

Paul

Simple seems to want to put a down diverter on the rear. I'm no expert.

Greg

On Monday, June 17, 2013 8:30:49 PM UTC-4, Pavel314 wrote:
We live in an old farmhouse with a boiler and radiator heating system. Air conditioning is done by window units except for the living room, which has a very old through-the-wall unit. As you can see in the picture linked below, the placement is very bad but that's where they put it 30+ years ago.



http://s1346.photobucket.com/user/pa...5d47.jpg..html





The unit is under the porch roof on the right side in the picture, right behind the hanging plant. When it's on, the hot air exhaust blows right across the door so you get hit with a blast of hot air when you come in or out.. Also, since it's under the roof, circulation is poor so I imagine that a lot of that hot air gets sucked back into the cooling air ports, reducing efficiency.



I want to replace the unit this summer and there's really no other spot to put it in the living room. Besides, I'd hate to have to cut another hole in the wall.



I had an idea to get a new unit (the room size requires about 11K BTU) and mount it in the same place. I'd build a sheet metal plenum to catch the hot air exhaust and run an exhaust duct up through the porch roof. This would eliminate the blast furnace effect when opening the door and hopefully make the unit more efficient since it wouldn't be recirculating the hot air. Sounds weird, I know. Any comments from the HVAC experts on the group?



The other idea was a split unit but they cost twice what a through-the-wall unit costs and need professional installation.



I could also get two window units as a last resort.



Paul

I think some of the mini-splits are coming charged with "plug-in" lines now.. You might want to look around a bit before giving up on them.

On Jun 18, 10:07*am, jamesgang wrote:
On Monday, June 17, 2013 8:30:49 PM UTC-4, Pavel314 wrote:
We live in an old farmhouse with a boiler and radiator heating system. Air conditioning is done by window units except for the living room, which has a very old through-the-wall unit. As you can see in the picture linked below, the placement is very bad but that's where they put it 30+ years ago..

http://s1346.photobucket.com/user/pa...01_zps60e45d47...

The unit is under the porch roof on the right side in the picture, right behind the hanging plant. When it's on, the hot air exhaust blows right across the door so you get hit with a blast of hot air when you come in or out. Also, since it's under the roof, circulation is poor so I imagine that a lot of that hot air gets sucked back into the cooling air ports, reducing efficiency.

I want to replace the unit this summer and there's really no other spot to put it in the living room. Besides, I'd hate to have to cut another hole in the wall.

I had an idea to get a new unit (the room size requires about 11K BTU) and mount it in the same place. I'd build a sheet metal plenum to catch the hot air exhaust and run an exhaust duct up through the porch roof. This would eliminate the blast furnace effect when opening the door and hopefully make the unit more efficient since it wouldn't be recirculating the hot air.. Sounds weird, I know. Any comments from the HVAC experts on the group?

The other idea was a split unit but they cost twice what a through-the-wall unit costs and need professional installation.

I could also get two window units as a last resort.

Paul

I think some of the mini-splits are coming charged with "plug-in" lines now. *You might want to look around a bit before giving up on them.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I was thinking that too, ie that they could be a DIY install.
Still, they are going to be more expensive than a conventional
unit. The real problem here is that the original install location
was a ****-poor one.

Since the problem here is the hot air blast, I wonder if the
newer units might have less forceful air coming out? It's
probably something that you can't figure out, until you've
bought it. I guess he could start checking how much hot
air is coming out from any he happens across. But then
that is also going to depend on how many btu's if the
compressor is on, etc.